V.V.(14): Skin.

[Dave Monroe]

I'm not a chemist but I play one on teevee.  Googling
(http://www.google.com), I found, among other things.
On cellulose acetate butyrate ...

http://www.polymerplastics.com/transparents_but.shtml

http://www.efunda.com/materials/polymers/properties/polymer_datasheet.cfm?MajorID=cellulose&MinorID=4

And on vinyl plastisol(s) ...

http://www.tolber.com/plast.htm

http://www.radiantcolor.com/plastisol_vinyl-coatings.html

Which is hardly to say these are definitive, and if
anybody knows of a decent non-commercial site on
plastics, let me know, but it appears the important
distinction is that, while both are plastics, often
used as coatings, CAB is transparent whilst vinyl
plastisols are particularly, er, pigmentable ('zat a
word?).  Which makes sense, given the see-thru SHROUD
("The ... internal organs were hollow and made of the
ame clear plastic as the hell [V., p. 284]) vs. the
more naturalistic, "life-like" SHOCK ("a marvelous
mankin.... its flesh was molded of foam vinyl, its
skin vinyl plastisol" [V., p. 285]) ...

http://pynchonfiles.com/shock.htm

Seems that some sort of vinyl plastisol is used as an
ink, in, say, those raised, "puffy" t-shirt appliques.
 I have a "textured-for-her-pleasure" Thing (a.k.a.
Ben Grimm, of Fantastic Four fame) t-shirt, for
example.  Here's a lovely array of plastisol-coated
consumer items ...

http://www.belson.com/plastisol.htm

Anyway, while I can't determine what REMAB and REMICAL
(see above) were actually made of, I'm assuming that
either Pynchon knew, or that these materials were
(are?  they seem prevalent enough even today, given
the numer of hits I got) standard, or, at any rate,
common, at the time.  Ceryainly, Pynchon knows his
chemistry and materials sciences ...

> >From: Michel Ryckx
> >
> >Could someone tell me what 'cellulose acetate
> butyrate is'? (284.12)
> >And what is the difference with SHOCK's 'vinyl
> pastisol' (285.23)?

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